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I received an interesting email today, part question, but mostly rant. It’s hard to read as-is, given that it was submitted as a single sentence-paragraph, so I’ve broken it up for discussion purposes.

The email subject is “you worshipping Amazon.” There are some good points, some interesting ones, and many that I disagree with.

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just wondering why you are so in love with amazon, the retailer that is solely responsible for putting hundreds of small business stores in bankruptcy

Because they have good pricing (most of the time), great customer service (most of the time), great product selection (most of the time), and they get to me what I need when I need it.

not to mention the CEO of amazon being a globalist, with the merging of all the tool companies and platforms like the internet being censored

So what if Amazon’s CEO is a globalist? Many if not most large businesses aim to reach a global audience.

Censorship? Moving on.

why are you not being a proponent for the little guy like yourself

I am. Most tool brands are not “little guys,” even most of the small or independent ones. Liking Amazon and liking small businesses are not mutually exclusive.

I see big tool companies like klein making there tools cheaper, example I bought 2 magnetic nutdrivers off amazon once received I saw the quality change, I weighed new tools and weighed 5 year old tools, there was a 5 to 7 gram difference

Is that due to pressure from Amazon, or Home Depot, Klein’s exclusive big box retail partner?

because they have to compete with the amazons and have had to change their business model

Evidence?

so now I must buy german like knipex or maybe snap-on locally

There are other USA brands that produce high quality tools, not just Snap-on.

soon you will have nothing to report on

Doubtful.

I run a small contracting company and I forbid purchasing from amazon for tools or anything for that matter

That’s your right.

the vendors on amazon don’t even care what they are selling now, its like an online flea market now, and it is harder to vet the products by the pictures or descriptions

Brand name tools where you have a model number and know exactly what you want to buy? No. But there are many products and listings that are you describe them.

and if only they would give the country of origin for tools

Country of origin changes, and nobody likes buying a tool made one place when they thought it was made somewhere else.

That said, pressing for retailers to disclose COO, or asking why they don’t is a waste of time. I speak from experience.

I buy quality only and we have found out made in America does not mean quality usually it means same as china just cost more

There are some great tools coming out of factories in China, Taiwan, and elsewhere.

Just because something is made in the USA doesn’t automatically mean it’s good. But that said, there are many USA brands that produce exceptionally good tools.

we buy from Germany, finland, UK, Italy, where quality still matters

Quality still matters here, depending on the company.

so maybe you should cater to everyone seeing that the US market is questionable

What does that mean? I am a big fan of European hand tools.

I can see by the reviews that your viewers are looking mostly for price not quality, and by quality I mean a real quality tool is almost 3 times as much as the US price but will never break and the companies have been around for 100 years

That’s simply not accurate.

And on the point of price, not everyone can or desires to spend 3X as much (at least) on every tool they buy.

the brands today in the US are a joke

I disagree.

I frequent a few tool places in my town and the reps there tell me they are getting more and more request for german tools and have become a distributor for Knipex which is nice

Yes, because word of mouth helps to spread familiarity with European hand tool brands.

I wouldn’t buy European hand tools locally – the ones I’ve seen are always marked up way too high.

they make channelock pliers look like total garbage which they are

Channellock pliers are decent, especially for the price. Again, a lot of users need a tool to get work done, they don’t need the “best” tool at 2X-3X the price or more.

I am removing your site from my bookmark and will check back in a year

89 Comments

Stu I love what you do, I purchase many items form Amazon. I don’t see how it’s much different than purchasing than purchasing from HD, Lowes, or even ACE. Also, Amazon offers many items that are next to impossible to source locally. I am sure 30 years ago many ppl complained about items coming from Germany or Japan post WW2 as they do about items from China. As economies grow companies look at cheaper places to source production. I’ve been an Amazon shopper for close to 15 years and their Customer Service is 2nd to none…it’s made many other stores step up and respect their customers.

I think ace (and true value) are in a different category than HD, lowes, menards, osh?. Big box stores are chains while ace and true value, etc. Are franchises which retain more local control and can stock a better, specialized selection to serve local needs as well as retain more of their income in the community.
Personally I group amazon and big chains in the same category, and all things being equal would go to an independent local store, ace, true value, etc first and even spend about 10% more for small (under $50) purchases without much thought.
to be honest, In practice i don’t often do this. I am however often disappointed with home depot’s product selection. We have a couple local plumbing stores who sell retail and they have been invaluable.

there are a few definitions of globalism and the initial comment was meant as a term of elitist or the few people at the top that are the shadow leaders not that they do business globally which is not a definition, i understood it all, the rant was all right thinking and very accurate, beseos of amazon is colluding with bilderberg group and tri lateral commision, he is bad news to you and i and you cant see it now but it is coming, any stores and companies going out of business that fast is a sign people not normal, i know i am self employed and 1 person, i only buy the best and that is not usually a tool made in america and if america has quality tools then where are they, i have not heard one contractor talking about any amazing made in USA tools, just a auto mechanic and snap on and thats it , and if all you can afford is harbor freight then find a better paying trade than house framing which is all done by immigrants in my state, thats right some trades out there dont pay good and it is because of that, they are lower skill, find a highly skilled trade and learn it then you can buy the best tools money can buy

That was a long sentence… 2nd on thanking you for running the site. You’ve helped me build out my collection and the site is a daily read. With respect to amazon I agree on selection but I’ve had some issues with customer service, nothing that would make me write them off though. Delievery is another issue. Alot more items are showing up late compared to years past. It seemed to begin when amazon started doing more of their own delievery. I’m curious if anyone else has had this problem.

I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, I mean a lot. I agree that their selection is great, customer service is really good (if you call them and talk to them on the phone), but shipping is borderline. I’ve been a prime member since they offered it and I live in Hawaii. Prime in the past meant 2 day shipping for free. At least for those of us in Hawaii, that is no longer the case. Lots of things now get shipped USPS parcel pool. Instead of getting in stock items in 3 or 4 days (2 day shipping to Hawaii takes just a little bit longer), I’m getting things on average about 12 days after I place my order. This is for in stock items that are available to ship same day. I’ve documented this pretty well and have called Amazon out on this problem many times. It seems like they purposely delay shipping an item. I think its so we eventually decide to pay for expedited shipping. Sometimes if I want the item and get impatient, I will call customer service and ask them to look at the order. I will send them screen shots of the item being in stock when I place my order, confirm that it is still in stock, that it is sold by Amazon, and I ask them to change the shipping to overnight (to make up for the lost time). More often than not, they do it. However this is a pretty big pain in the ass. I understand that shipping to Hawaii is expensive, so I’ve told them they should either charge us less (since they don’t offer the free 2 day shipping), or charge us more and give us the 2 day shipping. I’ve been an Amazon customer for like 20 years and have spent a ton of money with them and I still get treated this way. This has made me often look for other places to buy stuff if the pricing is similar (which I am finding to be the case more and more often).

I’ve had more than 20 orders miss the delivery date in 2017, most of them were the ones shipped with Amazon’s own shipping service. Also had 1 package go missing, and a good number of packages packed incredibly poorly (padded mailers, and even non-padded mailers). I had over 200 orders from them in 2017.

Customer service from them also seems worse than before. It seems like it’s now more about just giving you your money back, rather than get what you actually ordered to you in the right condition. Sometimes it feels like the CSR doesn’t even know what you’re talking about, lol. Worse case scenario they always allow return for refund though, which is fine for me since UPS is just 5 minutes away, and they also allow dropping off Amazon returns at Kohls now.

That being said, other options to shop online were generally worse. The place I did like the few times I ordered was ACMEtools, but the $199 free shipping is hard to reach.

I’ve had problems on occasion with shipping being delayed a day or so too. Typically if you complain via Amazon’s chat service, they’ll compensate you with a free extra month of Prime. With it happening kinda regularly, I may never have to pay for Prime again. Seems to me like a reasonable tradeoff.

I agree about amazon going down hill I order from them almost daily tools on occasion my employer supplies my tools, anyhow I live in a rural area 2 hrs one way to a big box store home depot etc. So I order household things toothpaste to paper towels, a year ago a lot of things would arive next day now things rarely even ship within 1 day it still saves me money over my local options so I still use them although I have been using walmart.com more lately as they seem to be trying to compete with amazon

Speed and consistency of Amazon deliveries probably depends on where you live. I’m ordering plenty of different kinds of items from Amazon.com, with deliveries to San Francisco, CA and to Albuquerque, NM. Most often packages get delivered right on time, sometimes a day earlier, and very rarely a day or two late. Although, once in a while, delays do happen. The most spectacular delay was when I ordered a Proto screwdriver in January, and got it delivered in mid-November.

Possibly, I’m in central florida with a giant amazon warehouse just over an hour away. Not everything ships from there but the same day deliveries from it have still have been spotty. We were a test market for their indoor delievery… I never heard if that took off.

I hope he feels better about himself having not contributed one thing in his entire rant at a free morally straight site. God forbid too that you may also want to at least make some money to keep the lights on for this free service, I saw no indication he would pay you for the services he gets from you for free.

I look at Amazon as more of an encyclopedia of available stuff not just a store. I can’t name another site which has the availability or even the information of some of the tools discussed on this site like Amazon does. So you put a link to it, its up to you to click check out and support Amazon. I think you’ve been very transparent about offering both Amazon and direct links (alternatives) when possible.

Otherwise I use those links to at least see more about it and even possibly other’s reviews and experiences with it. Amazon has its problems to be sure especially with its third party vendors. As such, I make the concerted effort (if there is a tool I want to buy there not directly from Amazon and its worthy enough to support) to go direct to manufacture or the creator and order it from there or their listed certified vendors.

Agreed. I usually use Amazon as a starting point for shopping and price research, but have been finding better prices elsewhere more and more. The increasing problems with 3rd party vendors and counterfeit items due to warehouse binning also makes it worth the extra couple dollars to buy somewhere else.

I don’t think he hate American made tool. I think he just disappointed in the current state of American made tool. Even though I don’t agree with him entirely I see some of his point.

Some made in USA stuff just cost more without being better. Most people, myself included, just want to get the best bang for their buck. I doubt that anyone would buy US made stuff just because it’s made in USA. Certainly some of us would pay triple but at the very least we would expect the quality to be at least twice better.

fred mentioned that he would hate the day that Amazon become the only guy in town. I would too. Regardless, that have nothing with Stuart. I don’t see how ranting to Stuart and removing toolguy from his bookmark solve anything. Personally I am guilty of doing a lot of shopping at Amazon myself but that’s to Amazon credit of making it so easy with great customer service.

Interesting thought process in that rant, but a bit lost on the realities of the world it seems. I spent most of my life in small business, and in my opinion, mismanagement and a lack of attention to the shifting market does more to kill a small company than what the competition has done. Quality products come from intensive attention to the process of production and the attempt to limit stupid. Unfortunately, many business’ are dragged down by a lack of focus or enthusiasm of the employees. I watched so many people, over the years, just show up for the check, and just do the minimum to get by, not understanding that the minimum effort will never propagate that check forever. Not to mention the willingness to do even less in an attempt to demand a higher wage.

It is a never ending battle to create a process to produce something of quality on a repeatable consistent basis, and this bleeds over into the retail side as well. Training and education of employees is a key item, as well as a firm company protocol to back it up. Listening to a customer who is angry, even when you would rather drop kick them into the well or souls, is a much better option than leaving them on hold until they stop calling. I had a group that wanted me to upgrade their phone system once, just so that they could see who was calling to choose who to ignore… That company no longer exists…

I could go on and on. In my opinion, like them or not, Amazon found a key process that worked, and propelled them into a global giant. I cannot hate them for succeeding.

I kind of get what the guy is saying. Quality generally means someone cared about what they were producing. I have so many card board boxes piled everywhere I can’t get to my tools. Quality is very different especially from a professional stand point. A good compressor cost 450.00 30 years ago and you would get 10 to 15 years out of it. Now you can only afford the 79.00 crudola model and it probably won’t last a month with any real use. If you want high quality it costs way too much and even the professionals like me can’t justify it. Not to mention real quality is rare. I chunked the 3rd dead plastic ridden table saw I had and started dragging around my 50 year old Craftsman. It’s powerful, accurate, and heavy as hell and it will outlive us all. I don’t know if that’s quality or durability but it’s still going. what is 149.00 divided by 50? Quality has changed and it will continue to even after we are all Amazon employees. Get it made by some country that pays their people 7.00 a day and sell it to us who make 200.00 a day. Which is exactly what I made in 1983! Who the hell screwed this all up? Welcome to… the United States of Walmart.

And please remember Walmart is actually wildly subsidized by our state and federal governments because they, on average, do not pay their store associates a living wage. Hence many if not most access low income programs to survive while “working”.

Neither Costco nor Amazon partake of this scam. Oddly enough both are based in or very near Seattle, WA. Whereas Walmart is based in Arkansas. Wouldya look at the average educational achievement in each of those two states? Hmmmm.

i can say i have never bought anything from amazon. my wife and sons do but not me.

i can usually find what i need locally or at least semi-locally. if not i try and order from someplace that has a live person on the other end of the line. of course i despise self checkouts as well. that doesn’t mean i don’t find your site useful or informative because it is.

something tells me the guy is having a bad day and you were not the cause of it.

I’m exactly the opposite. I try to buy from local shops, but most of the time you’d think their hiring process was some kind of social welfare program. I tried to purchase an additional Freud blade from the same shop I bought the first one from a year prior. The catalog in the display was from 2006. The counter help actually called Freud to try and find the blade. I took his paper catalog from behind the counter while he was on the phone and found the info he was looking for, for me. He told me he could get it in three days if I paid double for shipping. After wasting an hour, I went to Amazon and got it in two days.

Please give me self-checkout. I’m sick of the amblers and lollygaggers strolling around and holding up commerce. When I work with a vendor that understands that my time has value, they win my business without regard to their location or corporate structure.

I completely agree. I love that lots of big stores have added self checkout. I find it the exception to the rule when customer service in a store feels like service.
Since stores can’t afford to pay their employees enough to hire knowledgable, committed employees i would like to see them invest in infrastructure to help competent customers help themselves(it’s cheaper than labor). I hate having to ask an employee at HD or Menards for help as it normally takes at least ten minutes of my time.
It’s usually me finding an employee and asking if they carry a product or getting something from backstock. Usually they have to ask the one knowledgeable employee in that department, or the whole store, because they don’t know. I don’t blame the employees perse.
I really like stores with good websites, accurate online stock information with store maps. HD is pretty good about this.

This is just the sort of site that we go to to escape peoples proclivities about politics and policies that are in the news. It’s about tools. Stuart and Co. love tools. I love tools. Amazon sells tools. But, so do a lot of other places. I admit that most of my Milwaukee M12 tools that were not purchased at Home Depot were indeed purchased online. Broken down kits sold for far lower prices on ebay. That may not be “Brick and Mortar”, but it is sold by people like you and me. I will use whatever method I choose. It’s about the tools ! Keep up the good work ToolGuyd.

I’m confused. He is anti-global, but has to buy his tools from Germany & Italy?

He didn’t even mention the powerful argument that I would have agreed with. I’m not pleased at seeing/hearing about the sweatshop like environment some Amazon employees work in, but then again no one is forcing them to work there either.

Just like no one is forcing this guy to buy a particular tool, or read this GREAT website (his loss).

I’m a big Amazon guy, but lately I have been buying stuff from my local Ace hardware when I can. Sometimes the prices are a little higher there, but I don’t mind paying a bit more to support a local business. The guys there are friendly and knowledgeable. Ace is a co-op, and each store has an independent owner. The guy who owns the nearby Ace also owns a few other hardware stores.

I don’t think that really was worth a response. The person writing that was either a troll, very ignorant, stupid or a combination of all three. That’s about as respectful as a comment as I can make in regards to this post on that email.

Stuart…. I love the balance of ToolGuyd. After four years as a daily ToolGuyd reader, the quality and useful life of my tool purchases have increased significantly, my purchases are based on being informed and appropriate, and my purchases are often at a best price available. Kiddingly, I also say ToolGuyd has cost me a lot of money….. but I’m happy for it! Thanks!

Amazon simply CANNOT take over the world, neither can Walmart or anyone else. In the U.S. market you can be the best or you can be the biggest but you can’t be both. And that’s not really an anti-trust legal thing. Once you are the biggest then your competitors simply have to target the good customers and in order to remain the biggest you have to cater to everyone else, which puts you paradoxically at a competitive disadvantage. Worse still it allows your suppliers to target you if you get to a point where you are so big of a buyer that it stops being a free market and they can jack the prices up and there’s no way for you to stop it. If you get so big that you can’t go elsewhere, you get screwed. U.S. Steel, BHP, Carmeuse, GE, and countless others all eventually ran into that same brick wall either on the vendor or customer side and got handed their lunch. Remember Westinghouse? How about that shadow of a company called IBM?

Amazon has made many businesses step up their game and they are rearranging the retail landscape, just like Wal-Mart, Home Depot (and Sears, Montgomery Ward, et. al.) have done over the last hundred or so years. Most of us just take the good and don’t think about the pitfalls of letting a few companies amass huge parts of the retail landscape. Internet shopping has brought the world to our doorsteps, with a bit of help from UPS , Fedex and USPS. I’m not sure I’d go back in time but we do need to consider the pitfalls of concentrated retail power of which there are many, if not for ourselves, then for our children, grandchildren, communities and country.

Well I certainly wouldn’t want a world where Amazon is the ONLY game in town. That said blame other companies for not upping their game fast enough and blame local governments for not taxing online purchases the way did for in store purchases for the longest time (even though I’m not a fan of taxation per say you can’t discount the effect it had on brick and mortar stores when say you could get the same $1000 tv on Amazon with free shipping without taxes vs going to Best Buy and paying $1000 plus taxes; which place are you going to then choose?). Part of the reason for Amazon’s growth has been ad revenue and running their own servers. Also they put money back into the company for a long time. There’s a joke on Futurama and possibly the Simpsons as well from about 15 years ago about Amazon stock and it being a punchline because it was pretty worthless. Yeah… now not so much. Other major online retailers that were once laughing at Amazon are now playing catch up.

Is Amazon perfect… not even close as they keep taking away certain features. Seems weird to single out Amazon (like they’re the only mega globalist corporation out there) when they are partly why Stuey is able to keep this site up and running without a bunch of ads and such.

And then you’re pissed off at globalism but you buy foreign tools from giant globalist corporations as well? Why is he buying Snap On (a huge company) and not Wright Tools or S&K for that matter(which are smaller US companies). I don’t get it. I’m surprised you just didn’t drop that email into the spam folder Stuey.

When the dude calls Bezos a globalist, he’s probably not commenting on international trade and rather on globalism as a political thing (think EU/deemphasizing the nation state). Bezos does donate to progressive political causes (see DACA Scholarships for recent example) and those are often associated with political globalism.

I think it’s just the state of the current market that you can’t buy all your tools from one supplier. I work in Telecom, and I have both Klein and Fluke tools, as well as Ideal Crimpers. I use B.E.S. for in-wall/In ceiling fishing/retrieving. Wiha for ‘precision’ drivers, Bosch for power tools. There is no single line I am aware of which offers the performance/features I need. You could argue Greenlee wire cutters are as good as Klein, but the Klein product is more comfortable in my hand and fits my workflow better than Greenlee cutters. Fluke makes (IMO) the best needle nose/scotchlock crimper pliers out there, with thinner, stronger ‘nose’ elements. I could go on. Maybe my preference for Ideal Telemaster crimpers over Klein crimpers is unfounded- but there is no way Klein’s cable testers match Fluke’s, and after a week of using the Fluke pliers, my Klein needle nose pliers were left at home.
It’s great to have choices, and it’s great to have quality choices at different price levels. The days of having Craftsman on every single tool in your home or tool bag are gone. It’s about finding the right tool for the job *and* for you. Toolguyd is a great resource for considering features, price, and use cases. Please keep doing what you’re doing.

Just a misguided soul Stuart, in my business we see them all the time. We recently had one who , after presenting our bid, attempted to “negotiate” the price below the total of the materials. Just let it go past you.

It used to bother me buying from places like amazon/walmart/homedepot/ikea, but it’s almost impossible to get around it these days unless you have lots of extra $$$ to spend on functionally similar items. Every time I go to HD the employees are helpful and friendly. Even walmart has gotten onboard with paying their employees better.

Fantastic products are built in China, it all depends on the company; they can build sh*t or rival anything US made.

Check out the lightning deals, find a bargain on a great tool and buy it.. Everyone has an opinion. Freedom of speech although sometimes maddening is still a right to be cherished. Chop some wood, make greater use of the delete button in your e-mail and keep doing what you are doing.

Back during the late 80’s – mid 90’s, Tiawan invested heavily in German machinery, training in manufacturing and have become extremely good in a lot of tool making, welding, OEM for top companies etc…
would i say they have become good as US, German or other world class manufactures… maybe; maybe not but pretty damn good. You might be willing to pay top dollar for Made in USA, but the majority don’t need that level of precision and expense, so goes the number game. The numbers say sell volume through the big box stores or sell fewer widgets at higher retails with higher manufacturing/material costs at fewer sale dollars. Perfect example of the growth of Wal-Mart,Home Depot, etc…. and the loss of specialty retailers.
I purchase mostly Milwaukee tools and really like having multiple sources for my tools like Amazon, CPO, Toolnut, etc… as well as
Home Depot and local specialty store to stretch my dollar as far as possible. Like it or not, Amazon and the like are here to stay…

Rambling emails aside, as great as they are, Amazon has become somewhat like Alibaba. I’ll explain, if you don’t know exactly what you need and you search for electronics (example), you’ll get 53,000 results from no-name brands. Yes Amazon is great but they should make it easier to find legitimate products. There is a filter for brand, but it only picks up these aforementioned no-name brands. I don’t know what the answer is (maybe for electronics put an option for ul etc. rated products) but they still have room for improvement.
Thanks for the great site and putting up with all this.

I’m angry that ToolGuyd doesn’t cover the Canadian market very well, but I’m not blaming Stuart or some “Big Corporation” for that… NOBODY does what Stuart does on ToolGuyd, but with Canadian sites and release dates.

That guy had NO RIGHT to say what he said. “Free Speech” doesn’t cover total idiocy and slander like that. This should not have been given a public forum to feed his stupidity. It really should have been left to Darwinism, and let that dumb ranter get run over by his next saw purchase, removing him from the gene pool.

And, for the record, even CANADIAN RETAILERS don’t have a clue when it comes to what ToolGuyd is talking about most of the time. Hell, we’re home of one of the most famous race tracks in the WORLD, Mossport, and we have NASCAR and F1 races that have cars PLASTERED with Tool Company sponsors that race there. And y’know what? The tool companies and the retailers STILL treat us Canadians like garbage, know-nothing, secondary users. So, where’s the outcry over CANADIAN made products? We’re the home of Lee Valley Tools! Their House Brand, Veritas, is Designed AND Manufactured HERE. Where’s the love for that? Who’s fighting for CANADA to be recognized in all this? We have national headquarters for ALL the brands, but where’s OUR Tool Conferences? Nowhere. Tiny booths at remote venues that Tool people just DO NOT attend. Not all of us attend the Calgary Stampede, because we’re on the other side of the continent in Ontario, where we’re too busy to care about Rodeos. Some of us use the tools on TECHNOLOGY, not VEHICLES, so why would we pay hundreds of dollars on tickets to any kind of Automotive event, just to get a look at a booth from a Tool brand? Where’s the advertising for CANADIAN suppliers?

Nowhere. Canada is like no-man’s land. The distribution and marketing is total garbage. So what chance do we have of finding out the latest info on the tools of OUR trades if we don’t have ToolGuyd? None. I am infinitely THANKFUL for ToolGuyd for their telling us of upcoming tools. I’ve just had to accept that I’m screwed trying to find any of the things with any reasonable certainty. That ranter is a total screwball, and it was wrong to give him a voice on this site AT ALL.

That’s exactly my point though, Stuart. You shouldn’t be attacked by ANYONE for what you cover. Your site is doing an AMAZING job. Those Canadian bloggers and such you mention? Completely lacking in the technical aspect we get from you. We get lots of stories of how it would have worked on Job X that they did so-and-so place, but never the technical specs. I’m a VERY Technical person, and I really NEED the style of reporting you do. That ranter you responded to was totally out of line, and at some point you have to say “No, I’m not giving that level of stupid a voice.” Because of your own self respect and professionalism, if for no other reason.

As to Canadian brands… Honestly, there aren’t many, and I don’t expect you to cover them. But that ranter, and I have to admit many of the ToolGuyd posters as well, are always furious about “USA MADE! WE’RE LOSING JOBS!” …Well… How does that help a Canadian like me? Where’s the fellowship you Pros have for your Canadian Brothers and Sisters in Arms out there? Canada makes good stuff, and so does the USA. If we’re going to fight this globalization issue for the sake of Jobs, how about a little respect for Canada in the sentiment? How about NORTH AMERICAN Jobs as a consideration? To read rants about how all these Jobs for Tool Companies are leaving the USA… well… They’re leaving CANADA too… so, I find it extremely frustrating that, simply being North of the border, and saying “Hey, we’d like some Jobs too” might spark anger from people like the Ranter.

ToolGuyd is by far the most TECHNICAL of all the blogger sites when it comes to tools. Canada doesn’t have that. And, as you said, the Bloggers from Canada are getting their info from going to American events. My point here is that the Tool Companies don’t really pay attention to Canada. DeWALT had a whole series of traveling truck shows, with tool giveaways, and all sorts of promotions… and not a single one ever came to Canada. The Canadian Headquarters? Never done a thing here. But they’ve sponsored race cars, and rodeo riders, and gone to specialty shows, like Home and Garden shows… but never with their WHOLE line, like they do with the American tool expos.

I, as a Canadian, have to accept that tool companies just do NOT want to put the effort into the supply chain up North here. I can’t compare prices, because EVERY Tool company up here has to special order what you want, and no one carries or advertises the entire line. I can have favourite retailers, who have earned my loyalty with great service, but there’s still a lot of runaround when it comes to release dates and services for products, even for THEM. THAT makes me very angry. We’re CANADA. We’re the second largest landmass country on Earth, and we supply huge amounts of hardwoods and softwoods to the construction industry, worldwide, every year. We’re home of several Steel plants, we’re home of the GM Truck Plant, we’re home of huge masses of lakes, rivers, and conservation areas that service camp sites… The amount of money we spend on the tool companies’ profits is probably less than the USA, but it’s significant.

I get PLENTY angry about this topic… But this isn’t STUART or TOOLGUYD doing this. This is the tool companies. My anger has no place being directed at either entity, and shouldn’t be given a voice HERE. I direct it toward the Tool Companies. The Ranter, quite frankly, overstepped the boundary between having a right to say what they want, and expecting what they say to be right. And to top it all off, they insulted ToolGuyd and Stuart in the process! That crosses a line. That is a comment that should NOT be given a voice. It isn’t right to simply sit there and let your good work be insulted by someone that stupid. When you cross the line of respect for the site, I say it’s fair game to expect ill will and insults for doing so. It isn’t your job, Stuart, to give voice to Ignorance like that. The entire site is dedicated to EDUCATING us all about what is going on with the Tools we use all the time. The Ranter is one of those examples that do NOT belong on a site dedicated to informing us all of the things we need to know. It promotes the division between different people’s beliefs, and the xenophobia that divides various people from different countries. Tool Users in Canada and the USA do NOT deserve to be divided like that. We work together on things so often that introducing ANY voice that would divide us is an extremely hurtful thing to our industries. Canada and the USA are more like two Brothers in a family business, and there’s no point giving voice to the idea that one is better than the other. We’re family in all this. Brothers and Sisters of the Trades.

It’s just… FRUSTRATING… when you have to watch someone rip down the good work of people you trust for information, simply because someone thinks their Ignorance is worth listening to. Stuart, you do too good a job taking care of all of us to simply “Accept” that Ranter’s words against you. There are MUCH larger issues to deal with, and that one is not worthy.

I like Canadian-made tools, but aside from a few known brands, “Made in Canada” is often a surprise.

I donated a bunch of hand tools this week to the local high school. I almost parted with a new-in-packaging Craftsman auto-loading screwdriver that I bought a few years ago. They had two versions on the shelf, one made overseas and the other made in Canada, so I bought it, thinking it might be good for review.

I’ll likely give it to my father, as he might like the oversized handle and easy bit change access.

A most interesting rant. I believe it had more to do with perception than facts. In these turbulent times I have to think that many share his view of globalization and what it means to be made in USA. I believe he is upset because he feels it necessary to purchase European tools instead of over-priced, lower quality American tools. He feels Amazon is exactly what’s wrong with the world and it pains him that Toolguyd supports such a company in any way. This type of reticence to change and nastalgia driven idea that things used to be better and everything is worse has been going on since the creation of civilization. Whole movements are made of this. Unpopular presidents are born of this.

Walmart and the other big box retailers were killing small businesses long before Amazon came along. They all had their chance to fully embrace the internet but they were big and slow. Only starting to catch up in recent years. Personally I would say small specialty sellers have more power than ever because they can sell on Amazon and on countless other platforms to reach a customer base that never would have been dreamed of for a small business 20 or 30 years ago. There has never been a better time to be selling a unique product.

To me Amazon was only a natural progression. It finally gave the people what they wanted. Like Steam for video games. Netflix and youtube for video content. Or Spotify and others are for music. An easy to use one stop shop with good pricing and almost everything you want.

I try to think about all of the stillborn attempts at post-napster music and movie services while media companies fought tooth and nail to do things the old way and extort their customers for as much as possible. The old guard always tries to hang on when faced with disrupting upstarts and they always find a way to blame the new guys for all of the world’s ills.

Stuart, what a fantastic point by point response. Your efforts on ToolGuyd are recognized and greatly appreciated. Your expertise goes beyond tools and materials. Your erudition, thoughtfulness and fairness, like tool quality, may be a rarer commodity than previously, but your website is an example that they are not extinct.

Some interesting points by the emailer, but seems to meld all the various market pressures faced by manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers into one big idea.

Plus, I imagine that a mention on ToolGuyd brings the “little guys” like KC Tool, Carbide Processors, Chad’s Toolbox, etc a bump in sales/traffic above their baseline that is at least an order of magnitude greater than what amazon sees from the same mention. I’d wager a substantial amount of my tool fund on it in fact.

Stuart, thanks for all you do! I buy from Amazon, some online stores like JB Tools, Tool Barn, Home Depot and sometimes Lowes and stay away from the local stores. I walk into them and no one greets you and if you have a question, most sale clerks are talking to each other then sees you coming towards them then scatters so I figured they don’t want my business and my money.

I am a big fan of amazon, I will often shop and handle items locally but may purchase via amazon if I find their prices are better, and they often are. The real benefit I find with amazon is access to tools and equipment that may possibly be found locally but would take an extraordinary amount of time to locate and then they would likely be overpriced. Your site is very useful and I use it regularly so keep up the great work!

Many American companies make some of the best tools . Wright tools is as good or better then any other company. ……I think the big point is , if you don’t support “ made in America “ products when you can ,then these companies will eventually close shop and everyone will be left with only a few choices /places to buy tools.
I think Stu talks about products/tools and and where to find them. I don’t think he has an agenda.
My company and the other framers I know support companies in America, like Acme tools and try to buy locally . I love having an Ace or Aubachaun down the road from me, but if people don’t buy there, they do close doors.
That’s when people Must think of the big picture ,maybe spend more for an item, stop trying to save every dollar you can with Amazon and help out your local store and companies here in the good ol USA. ..

What I’ve observed happening is these small, local stores stock mediocre quality tools that are price competitive with local chain retailers. Unless they’re selling niche tools, they cannot compete selling expensive, quality tools when comparable tools can be found at a big box retailer for much less. It’s rare to find a small hardware store stocked with a selection of quality US tools.

Unfortunately, in the real world, you face the choice of buying Chinese products at a small retailer or US products online.

I personally choose to support the manufacturer rather than the retailer.

I appreciate what you do.
I use Amazon quite a bit simple because I can research and buy without burning gas . I understand the frustration of loosing the little guy but times have changed and work still has to be done.
Thanks again.

My local Ace is great when it comes to customer service. Always someone to help, cheerfully, knowledgeable. I buy there when I can. But also, they often don’t have what I seek. Sometimes they just recommend I go online. Our local Home Depot has gotten much better with customer service and friendly folk. OTOH, for a long while the main guy in the tool dept was just a sourpuss (he actually looked sour when he saw a customer coming). He seems to be gone. But I did always go first to Home Depot due to that, it was just unpleasant to go there.

There’s another hardware store nearby, though not real close. They are really pros and everyone loves that store. They’ll tell you how to fix your plumbing if you bring in the part. That used to happen a lot, decades ago. Now it’s so rare. I do go there when I’m near that area, though too far.

Yeah, I worry a bit about Amazon going downhill like it is. Harder to find what you want, and shipping for Prime has definitely deteriorated. But still often the best game in town. Now they have local pickup spots and drop off spots. I’m not willing to spend 40 minutes getting something unless I really need it badly right away. Handy, though. Bezos is kind of the opposite of that Eddie guy who ran Sears into the ground. I just forget the politics of the owners, some of the big box stores are at the opposite end of the politics spectrum. I just go where they have what I need.

All that said, I’d rather shop locally if possible and there’s good service. I like to see what I’m buying and just go get it. I’m willing to pay somewhat more for my local ace or the other hardware store, for the service. Also, I love my German made tools. And Canadian ones, too :D. Jessem, Lee Valley, quality. Good US made, too.

“OTOH, for a long while the main guy in the tool dept was just a sourpuss (he actually looked sour when he saw a customer coming). He seems to be gone. But I did always go first to Home Depot due to that, it was just unpleasant to go there.”

I try to support my local small businesses and mom & pop hardware stores, I really do. But they are not a good source for new products. At all.

The mom & pop hardware store near me still has lots of old Skil 14.4V drill/saw sets with the Ni-Cd batteries, among their other very outdated offerings. They’ve been sitting there over a decade now and have lots of dust and yellowed plastic packaging. I see them every time I visit. I’ve asked a few times about pricing and if they’d sell them cheap just to get rid of them. Nope. They want full retail price – what they would have cost new back in the early 2000’s. The batteries are probably dead by now and the tools cost more than what you can get a brand new Li-ion set for, but these people refuse to cut their losses and put newer tools that might actually sell on the shelf instead.

Lots of their other tools are way overpriced, too. Over retail price. I get that they need to make money and they sell less than a big box store so they need to make more money per sale to stay in business, but it’s more than a little ridiculous to pay $30 for a pair of pliers that retail for less than half that, and can be had at multiple other local retailers for much, much less.

So, I’m all for supporting the small business stuff, but that all depends on the small business having the tools I want, at a reasonable price, with reasonable service.

Amazon is bad in the sense it puts small businesses out of business when they can’t compete, but it’s on the small business to be competitive, not just holding onto everything old in hopes it’ll eventually sell and not have any space for new products that customers would actually buy.

The rant was unjustified. Credit for airing it and making your counter points.

Regards the letter writer being unhappy about Amazon, I have read about many bad business practices there. They treat both suppliers and customers badly. Their marketplace in particular gets very bad press in the UK and remember it’s only a few weeks ago that we were shaming the uncontrolled, BS five star user reviews.
I don’t consider Amazon a trustworthy company. They are rarely the most competitive place to buy the tools and tech that interest me and I buy from them as a last resort.

Sadly this is an inevitable cycle. Companies get something right, they grow, they expand, diversify, then what made them good gets lost in the haze of more and newer management who lack the original vision, and the demands of new and bigger institutional investors. It’s time for someone to take Amazon’s lunch off them. Intel, Apple and many others too. When ordinary guys start to curse companies when once we used to recommend them to friends and family, they’re on the way down.

The answer’s easy. If you care, then spend your dollars with whoever you consider to be the good guys.

Hey Stuart,
Just keep doing what your doing. Your sites morning cup of coffee and my afternoon delight.
I appreciate the time and effort you put in on this site and hopefully you continue doing this just knowing you have a bunch of folks who appreciate this gem of a site!
Remember there’s always a bad apple in a bunch.

I thought this was TOOLGUYD, which I thought was supposed to be a site that discusses tools and tool related topics. Not some pointless rant site that wants to discuss what people think about Amazon. Although I find the topic of this pointless discussion useless in every sense of the word, I’m not going to say that you worship Amazon (it would be real weird if you did) but the dude who made that comment was right. You do put way too much emphasis on Amazon in a similar fashion to how religion praises and puts so much emphasis on their God. Everyone likes Amazon for the most part. Otherwise they wouldn’t be where they are. Why don’t you ever talk about ebay? Huh? But it gets sort of old to constantly read about something being promoted or sold or they are not an authorized dealer or something related to Amazon every week. Blah blah. Who cares? Amazon has nothing to do with tools whatsoever other than that they are sold on their site. Nothing else. And I understand that you have to advertise to get tools to try out and tell us about, which is awesome. But give it a rest once in a while. This is the only tool blog that talks about Amazon as much as it talk about tools. It’s pretty bad. But it’s your site. So you can talk about whatever the hell you want I suppose, but I’m sure people would rather read about tool related topics. Oops I forgot… this is toolguyd.com isn’t it?

How ever will you survive without the readership of this very stable genius for the next year, when you return to his bookmarks? I propose a GoFundMe… not just to keep ToolGuyd afloat, but to buy a majority stake in Amazon and change its highly successful ways. It will surely bankrupt us all, but at least it will make an anti-globalist (who doesn’t purchase American-made tools) happy.

Everyone works hard for their dollar. I like selection and a bit of quality / value balance.

HD is the big game locally and has T’d me off majorly. We were the test market for no more 5% lowes credit match, which you’d get if you had each compamy’s credit card. One of their staff members accused me of theft for asking for the customary 5% credit match and then when I asked to speak to a manager, the assistant manager ——— who I actually talked to on the phone a few weeks earlier about the lack of discount, who said he’d keep honoring it, that I was not the only one to complain, that he was putting my name and the others on a list at the pro counter——— suddenly had amnesia about the conversation and list … FFS!!!

Anyway. HD has the market here. I have been to smaller stores and shops, but either they don’t have what I need, or it is some odd brand, and primarily the price is a lot higher?!?!

Sorry guys … IF they have what I want / need; I will happily pay a similar price locally, but oh we have to special order that, check back in a week or two – AND – it is MSRP only or 15-20-25% more, day in day out, for freaking everything?

It is my dollar. If Amazon has it and can get it to me in two days. Boom. No wasted time driving to stores, etc etc etc.

In some ways, Amazon has been a game changer with the prime 2-day shipping. It used to be that a person would need one part, perhaps something broke, or something in the plan changed and it was essential to the next steps in the process. Waiting a week for delivery was the norm.

This recently happened to me with some drawer slides and a specific router bit. And both these times, the 2-day delivery at a normal price meant I could get on with my project. Since I’m a hobbyist I don’t have any clout with a local store getting me a rush order, etc, nor am I willing to pay a premium for faster shipping. This is now the norm, as long as it’s a Prime item. Sometimes the two days includes Sunday. That said, recently I’ve had too many delivery promised and not on time. If this continues to go downhill Amazon may not be my preferred choice.

If Amazon is too big (it is) I worry about its effect on the market. For instance, individual pricing depending on some specific criteria has been discussed somewhere. So, while I don’t agree with the message-writer (I don’t see any conspiracies, for instance) I do see the grain of truth in it. Conspiracy theories flourish mainly when there is a grain of truth to them. Not to say there are never conspiracies, but I assume the skilled conspirators know enough to keep them hidden so the average person never knows about it. 😉

I think the comments, while valid, reflect a misunderstanding. Everyone seems to think the way they use a tool or tools is the way everyone else should. That’s ridiculous. Some of your readers are working pros. Others (like me) casual DIYers. I’ve got a lot of tools I’ve used only a few times. Sure, I could have rented a “pro” quality tool for about the same price, but in all likelihood, I’d have had to wait for it to be available and be under pressure to return it. Rental tools are often like rental cars (beat up). I have bought cheap-ish cordless drill drivers just to build a deck (one for drilling, one for driving). That they survived was a bonus.

Amazon is much better than eBay. You still need to know what you are buying and yes, the local hardware store (where I shop as much as possible) needs to rethink their strategy. But I buy all kinds of stuff at my local – chemicals, lawn tools, nuts & bolts, plumbing, gate hardware, wiring supplies… the list goes on. Ryobi tools are cheaper at HD than on Amazon (markedly). HD is local compared to Amazon (employs locals). Unless you want to buy a tool *made* by the guy next door…

fred on The Best Hook and Pick Set?: “Moody also make spring hooks and sets: https://www.amazon.com/Threaded-Spring-Tool-Kit-Light/dp/B0026GI62A/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=B0026GI62A&qid=1558784803&s=industrial&sr=1-1”